At Cannes, a matter of the heart

When telling you about the goings-on in Cannes, I will start with something that I have been grappling with of late. It is also something that is at the centre of a lot of seminars and discussions lined up here at Cannes. What is it that makes some work - stories, ads, television series and movies - click and the rest fail? What is it that makes one piece of work a runaway viral success while everything else is a dud?

This sharp contrast struck me more when I sat down to watch over a 100 films at a screening theatre. Country after country, category after category, agency after agency, all had films that made little or absolutely no impact. I had to pause and do a reality check. Was it really Cannes where I was watching films that had been entered as the best bets of agencies the world over? But it was the dull truth.

Here's what I think went wrong - most of them lacked a genuineness of intent. They all seemed to be driven by the need to be noticed, shortlisted and then be in the running for a metal. Anything that I have enjoyed in the recent past - from ads, television series to movies - did not seem to be driven by such a dire need. All of it came from a clear purpose of touching and engaging in a dialogue the human heart.

This does not mean that we don't have worthy contenders across categories this year at Cannes. With ads such as the 'Epic Split' (Volvo Trucks), 'Trial by Timeline' (Amnesty International) and Sweetie, we do.

But I definitely question our obsession with 'just impact' in advertising. Especially, in films where stories are all you have. If you think you are going to create great work with just treatment, device or technique, I am sorry, but your work is boring. And, it would soon be dead.

The weather, on the other hand, has been great, thanks to the showers, sprouting umbrella-selling vendors within hours. The long walk along the sea-front is fun as ever, though there are no mile-long queues till now, with delegates still arriving from different parts of the world.

Today was a wonderful session with the 'Her' man - Spike Jonze. The discussion started with how a story lived today quickly tries to become a story told. 'Hey this happened to me' is what everyone out there wants to share with the world. Elaborating on how he works, Spike said that he knows deep within what's meant to be communicated and what's not. So it's easy to retain the essential and discard the rest. When asked what is it that drives him to tell his stories, he said that he uses them to answer the questions that he has. He added that limits of storytelling can only be pushed with the power of bravery, so one should not be afraid. 

The one pearl of wisdom that I took away was to relate with our stories in an intimate way - shape them through the lens of our questions, issues and deepest feelings. I have a feeling it will add a lot more depth and human appeal to our work.

One of the other sessions to look forward to is with Aaron Sorkin, the created of the HBO series, Newsroom. He will talk about the deep layers of storytelling. Another session on universal storytelling brings together people behind Downton Abbey, Sherlock, The Walking Dead, Drama Fever and McCann Global Creative Chairman Rob Reilly.

The days in Cannes are going to be filled with a lot of action and we have our eyes and ears open, along with the all-important heart.

The author is the National Creative Director at McCann Worldgroup